Fear of Needles: A True Story

How did this fear come about? I don't pretend I can answer that question except that many of us have fears about apparently harmless things. And that these fears can often turn out to be crippling fears. For example, one person might have a deadly fear of heights, another one will just refuse to get into airplane and a third might go faint when she sees a spider. I also know that my first remembered experience with a needle was incident-filled. My mom took me to the doctor for a vaccination when I was a toddler. The doctor's office smelled funny and the place was bare, a far cry from my comfortable home. I began to watch everything carefully determined not to let these strangers pull a fast one when I was not looking. I was lifted to the examination table, and the table was another thing I didn't like. When I was turned over, I was sure something mysterious was going to happen. As you know, children have this sixth sense that warns them of things to come. I turned my head and saw a huge needle poised near my bottom, and decided to remove myself from the table. However, my attempt to get off the table did not succeed. The nurse pressed me down and I began to kick and scream. It needed my mom and two more nurses ultimately to hold me down while the evil doctor administered the shot. Not a good start with the needle experience. Since then, I have carefully avoided the experience if at all possible. The results have both been good and bad. In some cases, I got cured without the help of the needle. At other times, I got a double prick because the original one caught unsuspecting nurse off guard as I moved the limb away and the needle did not find the intended vein. So the nurse had to do it again, this time more deliberately and carefully. So I got two pin pricks instead of one. The situation was often worse at the dentist's. The shot of Novocain intended to deaden the pain of the dental procedure often did not find its mark and I felt the full pain, and blacked out. Only when the dentist had learnt about my particular fear did he take the extra care to see that the shot reached its target. When I was a teenager I injured my back and was taken to our family doctor who decided to do a spinal tap. However, when I saw the needle that looked like it was sourced from the collection of Frankenstein, I opted out of the procedure. The back pain went away soon, and I have often wondered whether it was the fright on seeing the needle that cured the pain. I think I should start a society for all those who have a similar fear of needles.